Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Erykah Badu Made Some Very Dangerous Comments About Girls and Sexual Harassment

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by Kimberly Foster @KimberlyNFoster

Earlier this week, Erykah Badu went on a tweet storm about dress codes for school-age girls. What began as a problematic, but, generally conciliatory, take on the nature of attraction quickly devolved into a full-blown defense of predatory male sexuality.

She advocates dress codes for girls, namely knee-length skirts, so that girls will not distract their heterosexual male teachers.

Badu asserts that it is normal for men to be attracted to girls of child bearing age but never specifies when that is. Girls can get pregnant as soon as they start ovulating which is about a year after they begin menstruating. In the United States, the average age of menarche, or the beginning of menstruation, is 12.5, but Black girls enter puberty earlier and begin menstruating sooner for a variety of reasons. Thus, Badu makes a case for men's attraction to pre-teen girls. Frankly, it's disgusting.
It is also heternormative. Boys, especially Black boys, are at risk for sexual violence. One in six boys experience sexual abuse before they turn 18. What, then, is the fix to ending this epidemic?

Wardrobe-based solutions are not offered to boys who are susceptible to predation because the expectation that girls will shoulder the responsibility of male desires for domination has been normalized. No this isn't "fair to everyone" as she states.

The science behind Badu's comments has been debunked for decades, but let's say, for a moment, that this sort of attraction is natural. We do not use nature as an excuse to accommodate violence. Badu's attempt to cite it as a cover for internalized misogyny failed. Those of us who know better will not accept the continued sacrifice of the bodies and autonomy of girls.

Take a look at her comments below.






























Photo by Paras Griffin/WireImage

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